Title: In Memoriam -- Doris Barnette

Author:

Section/SPIG: Maternal and Child Health

Issue Date:

---

Doris Maria Barnette passed away in Jackson, Miss., on May 23 after a short illness.

She was born in Columbia, Louisiana, in 1945 and received her undergraduate degree and master’s degree in social work from the University of Southern Mississippi in Hattiesburg. Her first employment was with the United States Public Health Service in Philadelphia, working with the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians. In the late 1970s she assumed the position of director of the Mississippi Delta Child Health Improvement project in Clarksdale.

In 1980 Barnette was selected as statewide family planning director for the Mississippi Department of Public Health in Jackson. During that time she was selected as Social Worker of the Year by the National Association of Social Workers.

In 1986 she was appointed Assistant State Health Officer for the Alabama Department of Public Health in Montgomery. From 1992 to 1994 she did private consulting. In 1994 she joined the Florida Healthy Start coalition in Tampa, and in 1996 she moved to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in Washington, D.C. In 1997 she became Principal Advisor to the Administrator of the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), a $6 billion agency assuring access to health care for over eight million Americans. Barnette moved to Jackson, Miss., in 2001 and was the administrator of a four-state disability business until her death.

Barnette was the daughter of the late Bythel Barnette and Cecil Ray Barnette. She is survived by two brothers, one sister, three nieces, one nephew, five great nieces, and six great nephews. A celebration of her life was held in Flowood, Miss., on Sunday, June 26. Donations can be made to the Doris Barnette Social Work Scholarship Fund by sending a check to Claude Earl Fox at 326 Suffolk Rd, Baltimore, MD 21218.